This being said, I am tired – exhausted, really – of all this overplayed Franco-Ontarian business. Why can’t we be content and proud of being French-Canadian?

Why are these Franco-Ontarian flags, more appropriately banners, flying more often, higher and larger than our Canadian flag?

I wonder if this is some political ploy. Casselman and Rockland are just two I have noticed recently, but to be fair, some of the businesses in these towns do fly both— merci to them

What about our Swiss-Ontarians, Dutch-Ontarians, German-Ontarians, etc.? They don’t need to fly a language flag to prove or validate who and what they are.

This country is made up of many languages and cultures, all wonderful and interesting. Why are we bombarded with the green-and-white Franco-Ontarian flag?

If they must fly it, then it should be flown with and under our Canadian flag, or on private property. Our red-and-white maple leaf should be our priority because all Canadians matter.

Yes, some of us are French and proud of it, but I don’t see other languages needing to make a point of being in your face all over the place, celebrating their language.

We all have a language we speak, but do we really need a flag and special day to validate it?

It is what it is: just another language.

It’s 2017 and it seems as if we are still trying to force segregation—first religion, then colour, then race, now language.

I read the article in the Standard-Freeholder a while back about the celebration and it was a bit disconcerting when it was mentioned the children participating had to speak French. Does this infer if you don’t speak French, you cannot participate in the event? Another stab at segregation.

I don’t believe Quebec has an Anglo-Quebec flag, but I’m sure it would not be allowed to fly if it existed. I don’t know why the Franco-Ontarian flag is flown over so many of our towns, as if it is the flag of our country or even province. It is not.

French is a beautiful language as are all other languages. I am French and proud to be, but first and foremost I am Canadian and as Canadians we should fly the red-and-white Canadian flag, or drapeau Canadien, first.

Rob Billard

Cornwall

That is such an enlightened letter that I thought that it should be circulated to show that CLF is fair-minded & that we're not just out to paint a black picture about the battle over the issue of enforced bilingualism. However, while being anxious to thank Rob Billard for making the effort to share his applaudable views, we cannot ignore the glaring fact that the French extremists are the ones who are heard MOST often & also the ones with the most support from taxpayers.

Comments sent in by a reader:

Problem is, the French government and power structure contains the "rabid ones"

AND... the average folk benefit (in a sense of pride and ability to puff out their chests) so much that they wouldn't dare challenge what the minority "rabid ones" are doing.

Proof of the above statement can be found in the following YouTube videos:

which demonstrates how they don't even want the Canadian flag to represent them in any way.

Our media should be covering this and asking tough questions about why this is.

And, while they are at it, they should be asking why Canada day is "moving day" in the f-in province.

What's wrong with Canada day? They need to be asking this point blank questions.

Not to mention the companies who pander to this "anti Canadian flag" crap.

Of course, the French even claim that the Canadian flag was designed by one of them so perhaps we should be using the Ensign.

Grrrrrrr....

K.B.

Another reader sent this:

Hello Kim,

It's the same old BS story again, the feds propping up the minority French outside of Quebec, you know like "two founding nations". Around 1999 Canadian Heritage published and released a colour booklet titled "Symbols of Canada". On pages 14 and 15 it has all of the flags of the Canadian Francophonie, apparently they all have dates they were designed and self approved?? For whatever reason the Franco-Ontario (1975) is the only flag or banner to be recognized by a vote on June 21 2001 in Queen's Park as representing the province's francophone community.

Ontario will thus become the second province to fly its francophone minority's flag, after New Brunswick, which flies the Acadian flag on its Legislative Assembly.

Can you imagine an English community in Quebec raising a giant Union Jack or English symbol with no Canadian or Provincial Flag in sight. It would be unheard of. Why the double standard in this country?

Another example of this propping up the numbers was with the navy back in 1980, then Minister of Defence Gilles Lamontagne announced that the amount of francophone recruits joining the navy were down so they needed a way to attract more members. Then out of the blue three new naval reserve units popped up out of nowhere in Quebec and Naval Reserve HQ which had been located in Halifax since 1945 moved to Quebec City.

This is irrelevant to most citizens, so I don't know what the answer is??

J.M.

My Response:

The Canadian Flag Protocol is well-known In BC, they follow the correct protocol because the French are not as militant as they are in ON, mainly because their number is so small in BC. In ON, they make up 4% but they are concentrated in the eastern parts of the province & that's where these huge banners are. I hesitate to call them "flags" as they don't represent a territory, Are you knowledgeable about this? Can the word "flag" be used to represent an organization's symbol - would the word "banner" or "emblem" be more suitable?

Kim

Canadian soldiers fought under the red ensign

If any of your readers would like a nice 3 x 5 flag for $ 15 + postage contact:

Bill Bishop 21870-122 Ave Maple ridge BC v2x8j7

Email: michealsydney47@yahoo.ca

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